


Rooftop Paradise

by Slytherin_Princess_Nysa



Series: AxG week 2019 [1]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: "I'm going to miss you", "I'm right here", Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Arya is about to hit him in the face with a shovel if he doesn't realize she's in love with him, AryaxGendry Week 2019, AxG Week, Best Friends, F/M, Feelings, Fluff and Angst, Gendry is a sweetheart but he's also a dumbass, I Love You, POV Arya Stark, Rooftop chat, Separation Anxiety, Sharing a Bed, University
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2020-08-19 00:35:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20200807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slytherin_Princess_Nysa/pseuds/Slytherin_Princess_Nysa
Summary: It's Arya's last night at home before she leaves for Braavos U. She spends it on her roof with her best friend, Gendry. Trying to decide if she’s going to tell him she’s hopelessly in love with him or if that will just put a wedge between them that will only be made worse by the distance.But sitting on the roof with him? He's looking at her with that sweet smile and his eyes crinkle in the corners and Arya knows exactly what she has to do.





	Rooftop Paradise

**Author's Note:**

> This is for day 1 of axg week!  
Prompt: Let's Run Away
> 
> I know this is late but I've been really busy so my axg week is a few days off from the official dates.

There was a loose shingle right under her window sill, every time she climbed out and onto the roof, it shifted and she thought it would break and slide right off the roof. But it never did. Carefully, Arya stepped out of her room, one socked foot at a time until she could crouch outside and latch the window closed behind her.

Gendry wasn’t in their spot when she got to the highest point of the Stark manor, a fenced in slab of smooth stone that her mother hated Arya climbing up to. Arya wondered how Catelyn would react if she found out Gendry usually joined her. They would spend hours up there, stargazing, talking and laughing and, in Arya’s case, falling in love with the idiot over their twelve year long friendship.

But tonight was different.

Tonight was their last night and it felt like the last night in the world for Arya.

Tomorrow she would wake up too early, get in her father’s car, he would drive her to the airport and she would get on a plane to Braavos. And Gendry would go back to Storm’s End University for his senior year. It hadn’t been easy when he’d first gone off to uni, Arya had been annoyed that she couldn’t see him for months at a time, but at least they had the same time zone and she could drive to see him for his holidays. But Braavos was an ocean away and the time difference from Storm’s End was eight hours.

“You’re thinking about it again.” a voice called from behind her.

Arya turned on the balls of her feet with a smile lighting up her face. Gendry was sitting on the ledge, feet swinging over the railing to drop onto the solid ground she was on. He dropped down and pulled his jacket off, dropping it on the ground at her feet. Arya reached up with her arms, raising an eyebrow when he didn’t hug her immediately. With a roll of his eyes, Gendry grabbed her and spun her.

“No, no, no.” Arya cried when Gendry threw her over his shoulder. She tried to sound stern but her laughter gave her away. “Put me down!”

He swooped down and Arya’s little fists held tightly onto his shirt as she was unceremoniously dropped onto his jacket, still giggling like mad. The cement floor was cold even through the thick fabric of his jacket and Arya half assed pushing at his shoulders to get him up and off of her.

Gendry was deadweight and Arya was having a hard time catching her breath, she wasn’t sure if that was because he was laying on top of her or because he was 200 pounds of muscle. “Get off, you big oaf.”

“Keep talking like that and I may never.” and she could hear the grin she couldn’t see but knew he wore, in his voice.

“Who would you annoy if you crushed me to death?” she asked with faux concern.

“I would figure it out.”

“Ha!” she took a gulp of air when he rolled off her and laid out next to her. “Like anyone would want to put up with you.”

“You do,” and she did. Gladly.

But she’d never admit that to him, he would never let her live it down.

“Says you.”

Then there was quiet. She was thinking about what was coming, the goodbye, the new life she was starting far away from him. Her eyes dropped from his and she followed the slow shifting of the sky, watching the final stars appear on the dark map.

Arya didn’t like the term ‘falling in love’ because it implied that it was an accident, that you hadn’t meant to do it. She hadn’t fallen in love with Gendry, she’d jumped head first at the age of twelve and never looked back. Not that the great idiot next to her knew, no one in her family did. Just Arya and Dany, who she had confessed to in a drunken stupor after Gendry had introduced Arya to his (now ex) girlfriend two years ago.

Gendry nudged her out of her thoughts, “Stop being such a downer.”

“I’m not a downer.” she defended.

“That’s not what your face is saying.”

She turned on her side, scrunching up her nose, “Why are you staring at my face?”

“Why are you being a downer?” he asked again.

Sighing heavily, Arya fidgets. “I’m going to miss you. Everyone, I mean.”

Gendry smiled gently and tucked a wayward curl behind her ear, hopefully it was too dark for him to see the light blush that covered her cheeks. “Dany’s going with you and you’ll be back for the holidays.”

Swallowing her fear of rejection, Arya leaned to press her forehead against his. “But you won’t be with me, you’ll be all the way in Storm’s End.”

Gendry took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Let’s run away.”

A surprised laugh bubbled up in her throat, “What?”

His hand dropped to her waist, “Run away with me.”

“Where do you want to go?”

Gendry shrugged awkwardly since his shoulder was dug into the ground. “We always talked about having a beach trip and camping for a whole week in the woods. Remember when you wanted us to move past the wall ruins north and live out our lives like cavemen?”

Arya tried to ignore the little warmth building where his fingers traced nonsensical patterns on her hip. “I specifically remember saying ‘cavepeople’ but be sexist if you must.”

“I am not!” he gasped dramatically.

“Says the one calling us ‘cavemen’.”

“Slip of the tongue.” Gendry was always her person and if she was going to run away with anyone, it would be him. “So where are we running away to?”

“Those are my options?” Arya snorted, “Beach, camping or living in a pre-lightbulb, pre-indoor plumbing society?”

“Not much of a society, two people.” He reclined onto his back and tugged her into his side. Arya sighed and burrowed deeper into him.

“Just us, huh?”

“You said it yourself, who else would put up with me?”

Arya hid her face into the crook of his neck, “Just us sounds nice.”

His heartbeat was calming under her ear, a steady beat that was lulling her to sleep with his warm hand pressing into her back.

“Arya,” his voice dropped. “I have to tell you something.”

Her hand reached up, fingers covering his lips before he could say anything more. “I know your voice and I know when you want to say something that you shouldn’t be saying out loud. Right now you can’t.”

His hand froze on her back and she could feel the tip of his nose at her hairline. “How do you know that you won’t want to hear what I’m going to say?”

“If I hear what you’re trying to tell me I won’t want to leave in the morning.”

“I have this friend,” Gendry started. “He’s in love with his best friend but she’s leaving for university in a few hours.”

Arya’s breath caught and her eyes burned. She had waited years to hear those words and now she was, but she wouldn’t be there tomorrow and a week later, he would be gone too.

“I have this friend,” Arya whispered. “She’s in love with her best friend but she’s leaving for university in a few hours.”

His arm tightened around her. “Do you think my friend has a chance with the girl of his dreams or do you think it’s a lost cause?”

“I think he does,” Arya turned her face up, her lips touching his jaw. “Do you think my friend has a chance with the boy she’s been in love with since she was a little girl?”

“She definitely does.”

That night, Arya convinced Gendry to crawl through her window with her and sleep curled up in her bed with her. When the morning light came and they both lay in her bed, looking around her bedroom, she felt his fingers intertwined with hers. Gendry snuck out the window, waving to Arya as she pulled her suitcase out the door.


End file.
